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Exactly one week after Infosys Technologies announced plans to set up a development centre in Kerala, the state government headed by Chief Minister A K Antony has prepared a list of scenic spots to house India's best known software company.
The various plots of land -- ranging from 25 to 200 acres -- that the Antony government has shortlisted for Infosys could be irresistible offers considering the picturesque beauty of some of the locations.
These locations include a 25-acre land at the Wellington Island in Kochi, which opens to the quaint islands surrounded by backwaters, a 70-acre lush green island at Ambalamedu in the outskirts of Kochi, a 25-acre land at an IT park at Kakkanad in Kochi that the government is setting up and 26 acres of land at the serene settings of Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram.
While Infosys has requested for only 25 acres of land, the company is yet to decide whether it will be in Kochi or Thiruvananthapuram. A team of Infosys executives is expected to visit the state in two weeks to inspect the various locations that the Kerala government has shortlisted.
Elated by the Infosys decision to invest in the state, the Antony government is going all out to ensure that the infotech major sets up its campus in the most beautiful spot in the state.
Kerala IT Mission, the government's nodal agency executing information technology projects in the state, has zeroed on Ambalamedu, a 70-acre lush green island with a sprawling guesthouse owned by Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd.
In fact, FACT owns nearly 1,500 acres of land, a large portion of which is still under forest cover at Ambalamedu in the outskirts of Kochi. Some of the leading hotel chains including the Taj Group have been eyeing the Ambalamedu island to develop it into a tourist resort.
IT Mission officials said that the verdant island at Ambalamedu would be the ideal location for a company like Infosys to develop a software development campus.
"FACT has been looking for prospective buyers to sell the island. So we have decided to present before Infosys officials the island among others," a senior IT Mission official pointed out.
Officials said that the Antony government wants Infosys to set up its Kerala campus in Kochi because the city is the landing point in India for the South Africa Far East cable system.
"We want to make Kochi the next infotech hub in the country. Infosys is the best address to start with," Kochi Corporation Mayor C M Dinesh Mani told rediff.com.
The fact that the Antony government is finalising plans to set up the country's next Indian Institute of Technology at a 500 acres of land in Kochi is also expected to enthuse Infosys.
In the next few days, several top officials of the city headed by it's mayor (Mani) will travel to Bangalore to present the various locations of Kochi to Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy.
Mani said the southern side of the Wellington Island, where the southern India naval command is situated will also be offered as a possible location.
"A campus on the backwaters of Kochi will be the most beautiful spot for an IT company in the world," Mani pointed out.